


Hope

by Againstme



Series: Drabbles I write because I feel like it sometimes [11]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone : Amnesty (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 06:06:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18492922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Againstme/pseuds/Againstme
Summary: Duck doesn’t think about his future.He does not think about the ever approaching future.





	Hope

The irony of being chosen for some great destiny while simultaneously not having any prospects is not lost on Duck.

His diploma sits on his desk, next to the small pile letters, as hastily opened as they were crumpled up and put down.

He hasn’t seen Minerva in two weeks now, and it’s all starting to feel like a weird fever dream.

Only the sword hidden under his bed proves it isn’t.

He barely even managed to get a summer job. The owner of the new store had told all his other friends he wasn’t looking to hire.

In the last few weeks, it feels like the ceiling of his room has become his new best friend. His only friend.

It’s hard to find hope or comfort in the stale white, but at least it’s stable.

The walls of his home creak with age, slowly filling in towards him. The floor outside his door shifts, his mother, his sister, whoever, wondering if it’s worth knocking or not.

The ceiling does not move. It stays constant. Stagnant. It mirrors him.

So Duck allows the summer to pass by. He goes to work, he comes back home, he stares thoughtlessly at the opaque reflection above him, like a vain man on his deathbed.

He doesn’t think about the future.

He does not think about the ever approaching future.

The summer ends as abruptly as it began, but Duck’s still at his summer job.

Stable and predictable.

Juno comes in one day, and she doesn’t manage to hide her surprise when she sees Duck.

“You know, ” she says, “I’m studying to become a park ranger. It’s hard work, but it’s calm, and it’s local. I think you might like it.”

And there must be some kind of magic in those words, because as he comes back to his room, Duck notices the maple in the backyard tapping at his window.

They’d cut it when he was young, but it never managed to grow back to its former height, even after nearly a decade.

Hearing the tapping from the branches, in perfect synchronization with the wind, fills Duck with an emotion he hasn’t felt in so long it feels entirely new, foreign.

The tapping from the branches, a veritable call from nature, fills Duck with hope.

**Author's Note:**

> Posted first on tumblr @tarkesian.  
> Hope you enjoyed!


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